HAWCASTLE [violently]. Nonsense!
ETHEL [stepping toward PIKE, indignantly]. I knew that you had only a
further humiliation in store for me--
HAWCASTLE [following her and trying to interrupt]. But my dear--
ETHEL [with dignity]. No--you need make no denial for yourselves.
[To PIKE, haughtily.]
Do you think I would believe that an English noble would stoop--
PIKE [with passionate indignation]. Stoop! Why, ten years ago in St.
Petersburg there was a poor revolutionist who, in his crazy patriotism,
took government money for the cause he believed in. He made the mistake
of keeping that money in his house, when this man [pointing at
HAWCASTLE] knew it was there. He also made the mistake of having a wife
that this man coveted and stole--as he coveted and stole the money. Oh,
he made a good job of it! Don't think that to-night is the first time he
has given information to the police. He did it then, and the husband
went to Siberia--
HAWCASTLE [staggered and enraged]. A dastardly slander!
PIKE [in a ringing voice].--and he'll do it again to-night. I go to an
Italian jail [he suddenly swings his outstretched hand to point to
MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY, continuing without pause] and, by the living God,
that same poor devil of a husband goes back to Siberia!
[MADAME DE CHAMPIGNY, with an ejaculation of horror and fright, staggers
back.
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